Post Injury Training

So my blog has been “in transition” for a long time now. I really do have plans to move it over to anthrofoodie.com but life has been busy for a long time now “offline”. Which, I think is a really good thing.

Today, I just want to write about me and what’s been going on. I want to use this space more as a journal and place to reflect. And what I really want to talk about right now is running. To back it up a bit, I injured myself last March while training for a full marathon. I developed runner’s knee in both legs. The most notable moment was while completing the Lake Sammamish half marathon. I could tell my knees really hurt but I thought if I ran hard, the pain would go away in a day or two as it had after other races. This ended up not being the case. Instead, I had such horrible pain afterwards that there were several 4-5 miles runs where I had to give up halfway because the pain was so acute.

Now, I am about five months post injury. I completed physical therapy over the course of 3 months and have been slowly getting back into running. As someone who likes to consider themselves a runner, stopping running was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Giving up something that makes you feel good and clears your mind is hard. Especially when (if you’re like me) and you deal with anxiety. It was crazy how intensely my anxiety came rushing back when I stopped running. I thought I would never feel that way again and there it was, as heart-pounding and extreme as ever. Needless to say, it was hard, really, really hard.

But then, after a while you get used to not running. And then it becomes hard to start running regularly again because let’s face it, it takes a lot of time. And I’m always tired after work or it’s just too hot for a run. Lately, I’ve found my excuses all too valid, even though I’m only running short distances so far. In order to give myself a little kick in the butt I’ve decided to train for a race! It’s only a 5k because my PT told me I should increase my mileage very slowly and plan to run a half marathon in 6 months or so.

Post injury the farthest I’ve run is 2.5 miles. Man, I used to eat that sh*t for breakfast. But it’s a start. My plan is to take it slow. I want to run 3-4 days a week, somewhere between 1-2.5 miles over the next few weeks and progress from there. If anything, I need to increase my mileage slowly and go for mostly easy runs. I’d like to do some more progressive runs, but right now I need to just focus on doing it regularly. Get 3 weeks of regular running under my belt and go from there. I should mention that I’m complimenting my running with pure barre 2-3 days a week.

The craziest thing about a running injury to me has been to amount of time it has taken to just feel normal on a run. Even after finishing PT, there were several times where I went for a 1-2 mile run and my knees just killed. But given time, they seem to be agreeing with the miles more and more.

I hope the training goes well! In an effort to remind myself that this isn’t super serious training, I’ve decided to sign up for a halloween 5k where the runners wear costumes!

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